PSC pitches more questions about Hutchinson Island gas line project

Posted: Thursday, July 28, 2005

ATLANTA - State regulators could decide on Tuesday how much funding to give to building a natural gas line between Savannah and Hutchinson Island, but only if they are able to get answers to numerous questions about the project.

This would be the third time the Georgia Public Service Commission votes on the issue, and board members said Thursday they have more things they want to know before reconsidering their earlier votes.

Brampton Plantation LLC, which is developing The Reserve at Savannah Harbor resort community, has applied for regulators to grant the project $450,000 from a Universal Service Fund that Atlanta Gas Light collects partly to run lines to areas without natural gas service.

The request is high for this type of application because the fund usually covers a smaller "filed" portion of the costs, which a majority of the commission approved before when it gave $66,000 from the fund toward the construction. Developers are chipping in another $50,000.

They say the money is needed to help pay for running 2,580 feet of pipe under the Savannah River to the island where developers are planning for rapid growth in the coming years.

Commissioner Doug Everett, who has brought the application back up for another look, said the gas line would serve more than just a single neighborhood but would be part of the commercial growth that is expected.

"It's kind of a misconception that this is strictly a residential expansion," Everett said Thursday during a committee meeting. "It doesn't fall under the regular box."

But Commissioner Bobby Baker said that if there is other development already in the works on Hutchinson Island, he does not know why those investments are left out of the funding request.

To apply for the funding, only 161 residential units are listed on the application as benefiting from the pipeline extension.

Baker said he and Commission Chairwoman Angela Speir met with John McCleskey, one of the developers working on Hutchinson Island, and Carlton Brown, board chairman of the Savannah Economic Development Authority, earlier this week to hear about the work planned for the area, including a new hotel, restaurants, stores and more neighborhoods.

"None of this was factored into the application," Baker said about the development plans. "If it had been factored in, it would have significantly increased AGL's contribution to the cost of the project and reduced the amount that would have to come out of the Universal Service Fund."

AGL's portion of line extension bill under the current application is nearly $190,000.

Craig Dowdy, an attorney representing AGL, told commissioners Thursday that only the 161 houses are included on the application because it was filled out based on the regulatory agency's policy to include only known projects and not estimates for future development that can be subjective.

"It is to apply those (developments) that are currently being built ... and that's what we've done," Dowdy said. "So far we don't have a hotel (that has) applied for service. We don't have these others. .. We do believe they will come, and we think that's why this is in the public interest to be built."